In Person | Moral Praise and Moral Performance

John Austin Seminars - Moral Praise and Moral Performance

Speaker: Hallvard Lillehammer, Professor of Philosophy, Birkbeck Colleage, University of London  

Chair: Kevin Toh, Professor of Philosophy of Law, UCL Laws 

About the Lectures:

According to some, luck forms an indispensable part of legitimate moral assessments. According to others, it is incompatible with a basic principle of moral worth. What's the issue? Is it conceptual or empirical? Is it necessary or contingent? Is there a ‘problem’ of moral luck; or are there many, or none? With reference to attributions of moral praise, I suggest that there is no single problem of moral luck as traditionally understood. Instead, there is a family of issues regarding the interpretation and assessment of moral performance. In the background is a mixture of descriptive and normative issues, including how to understand the legitimacy of social expectations, the value of effort, and the duties of communities to enable their members to live good and virtuous lives.

About the Speaker: 

Hallvard Lillehammer is Professor of Philosophy in the School of Historical Studies. He has taught at Birkbeck since 2013 and was Head of the Department of Philosophy until 2017. Before coming to Birkbeck he taught philosophy for thirteen years at Cambridge University, where he was a Fellow of King's and Churchill College. He has also held appointments at Reading University and King's College London. 

Book your ticket here

Upcoming dates in the John Austin Seminars: 

2 December 2024 - Chris Essert (Toronto) 
27 January 2024 - Thomas Adams (Oxford) 
03 February 2025 - Quassim Cassam (Warwick)

17 February 2025 - Lorraine Daston (Chicago) 
24 February 2025 – Daniella Dover (Oxford) 
10 March 2025 - David Enoch (Oxford) 
12 May 2025 – Elsie Woodard (KCL)